EP1169228B1

EP1169228B1 - Method and apparatus for grading and orientating items into portions

Info

Publication number: EP1169228B1
Application number: EP00903957A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Thorkell Halldorsson; Asgeir Elvarsson; Bjorn Thorvaldsson
Original assignee: Marel hf
Current assignee: Marel hf
Priority date: 1999-02-18
Filing date: 2000-02-18
Publication date: 2005-09-14
Anticipated expiration: 2020-02-18
Also published as: DK1169228T3; NO320521B1; NO20014024D0; WO2000048909A1; DE60022634D1; IS6055A; AU2570600A; EP1169228A1; NO20014024L; ATE304476T1

Abstract

The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for grading, orientating and packaging items of elongated non-symmetrical shape. In particular the method and apparatus relate to arranging elongated items such as fish into boxes/portions according to their weight and/or size, and their orientation or after reorientation of the items. Further the invention relates to the problem of arranging items into portions according to one or more predetermined characteristics as well as arranging and directing item filled portions fulfilling the same specific criteria to a specific location and marking the portions (boxes) accordingly.

Description

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION TO THE INVENTION.

What often characterize food processing is the nature of the raw material and the irregularities in size, shape, weight and orientation of items flowing through the processing system. This is in particular true in the processing and packaging of fish, such as salmon which is frequently packaged directly into boxes, with or without the head.

Generally on a fish processing lines, the process is initiated with gutting and cleaning the fish. The fish is thereafter arranged either manually or mechanically onto a transporter most often with common orientation, e.g. all the fish heads facing the same direction. The next step in the processing is most often to identify the size and/or weight of the fish. This is usually done by weighing on a conveyor scale or volume determination by a vision equipment. Based upon the weight of the fish, a computer operating the whole system instructs a grader machine arranged after the scale to direct the fish into a optimal grading compartment taking into account predetermined parameters.

When packaging fish or putting into boxes in an effective manner it is important to arrange every other fish in mutually opposite direction to minimize transport space as well as packaging space and material.

The goal of the method described here is to minimize the transport and the packaging space required as well as optimizing the arrangement of the product items into the end-package boxes.

Usually the items arrive sequentially on a conveyor belt and pass an electronic scale that records the item weight and sends a signal to a computer. The computer calculates, according to known methods the optional grading for a particular item to be sent into and dispatches a signal to the appropriate grading machine. The grader will then initiate an arm mechanism or similar direction means to direct the item to the particular grading compartment or portion.

Traditionally, when processing whole fish the orientation or arrangement of the fish, is performed manually, most often after gutting and cleaning of the fish. This is labor intensive and ineffective and such operation will slow down the capacity of the system.

WO 9608322 discloses a method and apparatus for weight-controlled portioning of items with non-uniform weight. Each item is individually weighed and is selectively transferred to one of a plurality of receivers, so as to generate article portions with predetermined portion weight. The batching process is enhanced by regularly updating a recorded histogram of the weight distribution of the items, thereby making the target calculations based on factual conditions.

WO 9957016, published on 11.11.1999, discloses a method and a system for portioning and orienting whole items such as fish. The items are weighed and deposited by automatic means into a box such that they are mutually inversely oriented. The turning of items is done mechanically, for example by turning of a collector container or intermediate receiver or by using guiding chute means.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The problem described here before has now been solved by means of the present invention, which provides an apparatus and a method having the features of independent claim 1 respectively claim 4.

In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the operation in step (a) to (f) of the method is controlled by a control computer interacting with one or more of the following:

(a) in-feed system;

(b) ordering system;

(c) bin assigning and packaging system.

In yet another preferred embodiment, each and every item is rotated approximately about 90° to either left or right in a first conveying plane and thereafter approximately 180° downward in a second conveying plane before being introduced into the portion.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OG THE DRAWINGS

In the following, the present invention, and in particular preferred embodiments thereof, will be described in greater detail, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which

Fig. 1 shows perspective view of the apparatus for grading and rearranging the length orientation of the items,

Fig. 2 shows the apparatus in fig. 1 from the side,

Fig 3 shows the apparatus in fig. 1 and 2 from the end,

Fig 4 shows a side view of the apparatus for grading connected to takeaway conveyor and a bin filling station,

Fig 5 shows the arrangement of pre-treatment process are and the flow of items prior to their arrival to the grading and length orientation rearranging apparatus.

DETAILIED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

In general the present invention is based upon the idea of arranging items into portions and the portions into transport bins according to specific request of a customer with minimal deviation in the weight requirements as well as optimizing the space/bin requirements by rearranging the length orientation of the items in such a way that every other item closely placed have opposite length orientation.

Figure 1 - 3 shows a part of the grader (27) designed to arrange the items into portions and rearranging the length orientation of the items. A conveyor belt (51) is shown for transporting items (not shown) in a conveying direction marked with an arrow (55). Alongside the conveyor belt a plurality of gripping arms (42) able to swing out to catch an item passing thereon and direct it out of the conveyor stream into the opening area (56) of associated chutes (41). When the item enters into the chute (41) it is rotated first in horizontal plan about 90° and thereafter 180° in vertical plan as the item is ejected from the chutes (41) output end (57) and into portioning compartment (43). As can be seen the output end (57) of the chute has releasable opening device (54) allowing the system to store one or more items directed to the chute until appropriate for release. Further the portioning compartment (43) have means (52) to facilitated opening thereof and subsequent release of its content for example to a takeaway conveyor (58). It is to be understood that presentation of this embodiment of the invention is only to illustrate one example

Figure 4 shows the grader connected to a takeaway conveyor (58) conveying the items to bin filling station (29). As the item portioning bins (43) becomes filled the content is, according to instruction from the control computer, released into a predefined slot (45) on the conveyor. The content of the slot is then released to appropriate bin (28) in the bin filling station (29) and further conveyed over a check weighing station (30) to control that the filling of a particular container is in accordance to the clients order.

Figure 5 shows the arrangement of a pre-treatment work area (60) in before the grader (27). A detecting means (59) is illustrated as arranged prior to delivery of items to the grader (27).

The above is only an illustration of one example of the numerous available embodiment of the invention. A more detailed illustration of the workflow will be provided below.

As mentioned in the introduction the invention is directed to - but not limited to - food processing lines - where items in the end of processing are collected into portions of a specified size.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention the method is applied in connection with a system for grading and packaging whole salmon and comprising a conveyer belt for conveying the item from a first position to a second position, see Fig. 1 - 5. The first position is a weighing station (59) where the raw materials for instance hole fish which is weighed and its length orientation is checked. Therefrom the fish is conveyed onto a grader (27), in principle of a standard type but specially build to rearrange the length orientation of items, in addition of its general grading functions. The grader, and in particular its accessories is build in such a manner that it is possible to store one ore more items in intermediate compartment before they are released onto a takeaway conveyor (58) as a completed portion. The storing can be effected in the chute (41) making a passage for the objects from the conveyor belt (51) to collecting compartment (43). Each chute is equipped with releasable opening means (54) for releasing one or more items into the collecting compartment (43). The release/opening of the compartment (43) is synchronized with a delivery of a item box (28) to the box filling station (29). As the portion is released to a slot (45) on the takeaway conveyor (58) a specific box has been assigned to receive the particular portion. The portion is dropped more or less automatically into the box. After filling of the box a quality check is conducted (see fig 5, item 30).

It thus will be appreciated that the objects of the present invention have been fully and effectively accomplished. It will be realized, however, that the foregoing preferred specific embodiment has been shown and described for the purpose of this invention and are subject to change without departure from its basic principles defined in the appended claims.

Claims

An apparatus for grading items into portions according to one or more detectable characteristics of the items, in particular arranging elongate non-symmetrical items such as fish into portions,
the apparatus comprising a system computer in communication with associated detecting means, said detecting means being arranged to sense said one or more detectable characteristics such as the location of each item and the weight of each item, an in-feed conveyor (51) for advancing the items to be graded, an out-feed conveyor (58) for advancing the items when graded into portions, and a plurality of arranging stations (27) in communication with the computer arranged alongside the in-feed conveyor (51) for directing the items away from the in-feed conveyor (51) via intermediate bins (43) to generate the portions for the out-feed conveyor (58),
characterized in that,
said arranging stations (27) comprise on either side of said in-feed conveyor (51) oppositely arranged pairs of gripping arms (42) and chutes (41) connected thereto for conveying the items towards appropriate intermediate bins (43), wherein said chutes (41) are semi-circular and downwardly turned, so that length orientations of at least part of the Items directed into appropriate intermediate bins (43) is susceptible to being rearranged in order to minimize/optimize the intermediate bin space required for the graded items, said intermediate bins having at least part of the items therein with oppositely arranged length orientation.
An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detecting means further comprises orientation detecting means for identifying the length orientation of the items.
An apparatus according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein said chutes (41) are conical towards their out-feed end.
A method of grading items into portions according to one or more detectable characteristics of the items In respect of predetermined grading criteria, in particular grading elongate non-symmetrical items such as fish into collecting bins (43), including rearranging length orientation of at least part of the items directed into the bins (43) to minimize/optimize the bin packaging space required wherein at least part of the items are arranged with opposite length orientation In the bins, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) conveying the Items to be graded via an in-feed conveyor (51);

(b) detecting at least the weight of said items as they are conveyed;

(c) according to a predetermined request, setting the grading criteria for collecting portions;

(d) checking availability of said bins (43) and if detected items fit the selected criteria for one or more portions, assigning the items to the bin (43) with the best fit , if not recirculating or rejecting the items;

(e) in accordance to previous assignment to each particular bin (43), instructing a length orientation mechanism to direct the items accordingly into corresponding portions to achieve oppositely arranged length orientated items in said particular bin (43), wherein the length orientation mechanism comprises on either side of said in-feed conveyor oppositely arranged pairs of gripping arms (42) and thereto connected semi-circular and downward turned chutes (41); and

(f) upon fulfilling the grading requirement, including the length orientation, locating an available slot on a takeaway conveyor (58) and releasing the portion there into for further handling.
A method according to claim 4, wherein each item is rotated approximately 90° as it is directed from said in-feed conveyor (51) and thereafter approximately 180° downwardly in said semi-circular and downwardly turned chutes before being introduced into the bins (43).
A method according to claim 4 or 5, wherein each item is either rotated approximately -90° or +90° from its conveying direction and in the same plane as the conveying direction and thereafter approximately 180° downwardly in said semi-circular and downward turned chutes before being introduced into the bins (43).